System and method for administrating a wireless communication network

ABSTRACT

The invention disclosed is an administration system and method for administering user access to an Enterprise system that supports redirection of data from a user&#39;s desktop computer in a Local Area Network to a user&#39;s wireless device. The Enterprise system having a plurality of message servers and one or more Enterprise servers, the Enterprise servers serving to direct data stored on the message servers between the user&#39;s desktop computer and the user&#39;s wireless device. The administration system having two components, a user interface (or client) and a administration service. The client having restricted access to what changes can be made to the data on the Enterprise server, yet sufficient permissions to require a single point of access to maintain user access to both the message server and the Enterprise servers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 60/270,097, filed on Feb. 20, 2001. The complete disclosure of thisprovisional application, including drawings and claims, is herebyincorporated into this application by reference. This application isalso a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/079,317, filed on Feb. 20, 2002,the complete disclosure of which, including the drawings and the claims,is hereby incroporated into this application by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed toward the field of wirelesscommunications in general, and in particular to administrating awireless communication system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a typical wireless computer communication system, the source of theinformation to be transmitted or received requires a user to have arecognized user id on a messaging server. Messaging servers typicallydeal with the transmission and reception of data within an Enterprise.Enterprise servers as described herein are distinct from the messagingservers and control the transmission and reception of data to and fromwireless mobile communications devices via wireless communicationnetworks outside of the Enterprise.

The messaging servers and their permissions for access are distinct fromthe Enterprise servers and their permission of access. Thus, when addinga new user to a messaging server, if the user is to be enabled formobile messaging functions, the user must also be recognized by anEnterprise server. Traditionally, this would require that theadministrator be familiar with the procedures of both the messagingservers and the Enterprise servers, which may be quite disparatesystems. For example, a messaging server may be a Microsoft ExchangeServer and the Enterprise server a BlackBerry™ Enterprise Server, eachof which has a different administration interface. An example of such anEnterprise server is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,694, which wasissued to the assignee of the present application on Apr. 17, 2001 andis hereby incorporated by reference. Further, for security reasons itmay not be advisable to provide administrators the passwords required tomodify user access on both Exchange and Enterprise servers.

Thus, there is a need for an interface that will permit an administratorto administer user accounts on messaging and Enterprise servers withoutrequiring familiarity of the administration interfaces of either.Further, there is a need for an interface that provides restrictedaccess to a limited set of administration functions to protect thesecurity of both Exchange servers and Enterprise servers. The presentinvention addresses this need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the invention, a system for administrating awireless communication network comprises an enterprise useradministration service, an enterprise user administration clientconnected to the service, one or more messaging servers connected to theservice, and an enterprise server connected to the one or more messagingservers to enable communications between the one or more messagingservers and a wireless communication network.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method foradministrating a wireless communication network comprises the steps ofwaiting for a user administration request from a user administrationclient, receiving the request at a user administration service anddetermining if the request is an add user request to enable one or moreusers for wireless communications, a delete user request to disable oneor more users for wireless communications, a list users request togenerate a list of users enabled for wireless communications, a verifyusers request to verify that one or more particular users have beenenabled for wireless communications, or another administration requestassociated with wireless communications, and acting upon the request atthe user administration service.

In an alternate embodiment of the invention, a system for administratinga wireless communication network comprises an enterprise useradministration component, an administration user interface connected tothe component, one or more messaging servers connected to the component,one or more enterprise server agents connected to the component and to arespective one of the messaging servers, and a router connected to thecomponent and to the one or more enterprise server agents to enablecommunications between the one or more messaging servers and a wirelesscommunication network.

A system for administrating a wireless communication network accordingto a still further aspect of the invention comprises means for waitingfor a user administration request from a user administration client,means for receiving the request at a user administration service anddetermining if the request is an add user request to enable one or moreusers for wireless communications, a delete user request to disable oneor more users for wireless communications, a list users request togenerate a list of users enabled for wireless communications, a verifyusers request to verify that one or more particular users have beenenabled for wireless communications, or another administration requestassociated with wireless communications, and means for acting upon therequest at the user administration service.

A computer readable medium containing instructions for administrating awireless communication network in accordance with another aspect of theinvention comprises instructions for waiting for a user administrationrequest from a user administration client, receiving the request at auser administration service and determining if the request is an adduser request to enable one or more users for wireless communications, adelete user request to disable one or more users for wirelesscommunications, a list users request to generate a list of users enabledfor wireless communications, a verify users request to verify that oneor more particular users have been enabled for wireless communications,or another administration request associated with wirelesscommunications, and acting upon the request at the user administrationservice.

A system for administrating a wireless communication network, inaccordance with a further aspect of the invention comprises anenterprise server connected to one or more messaging servers and awireless gateway and configured to enable communications between themessaging servers and a wireless communication network through thewireless gateway, an enterprise server user administration service, theservice having administration authority to perform any of a plurality ofadministration functions for the one or more messaging servers, and anenterprise server user administration client connected to the service,the client providing a user interface to the service for a limited setof the plurality of administration functions of the enterprise serveruser administration service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show moreclearly how it can be carried into effect, reference will now be made,by way of example only, to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communications system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first Enterprise server system;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the system of FIG. 2 incorporating a useradministration system;

FIG. 4 is a logical flowchart of the functions of the useradministration system of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a second Enterprise server system;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a third Enterprise server system; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the system of FIG. 6 incorporating a useradministration system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a wireless communicationssystem is shown generally as 10. System 10 illustrates the transfer ofuser data items such as internal message 12, external message 14 oroutgoing message 16 between the user's desktop computer 18 and theuser's wireless mobile communications device 20, hereinafter referred toprimarily as a “mobile device”. Internal message 12 represents aninternal message sent from desktop computer 22 or 24 to the user'soffice computer 18 via network 26. Although only desktop computers 22,24 and user's office computer 18 are shown connected to network 26, asone skilled in the art can appreciate any number of other computers maybe connected to network 26. Further, it is not the intent of theinventors to restrict the present invention to a LAN as shown in FIG. 1.Any number of networks that connect systems capable of receiving andtransmitting data are considered by the inventors to be a network 26.

External message 14 represents an external message from a sender that isnot directly connected to network 26 such as a message from the user'smobile device 20, some other user's mobile device (not shown), or anyuser connected to Wide Area Network (WAN) 28. External message 14 mayalso be a command message from the user's mobile device 20 to the user'soffice computer 18. Outgoing message 16 is internal message 12 with anouter envelope.

A redirection system, embodied in FIG. 1 as the redirection program 30running on user's office computer 18, repackages internal message 12 asoutgoing message 16 by providing an outer envelope that contains theaddressing information of user's mobile device 20.

Messages 14 and 16 are transmitted via WAN 28, which is preferably theInternet, which utilizes the Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol (“TCP/IP”) to Exchange information, but which, alternativelycould be any other type of WAN. Network 26 and WAN 28 are connected viacommunication link 34, which is typically a high bandwidth link such asa T1 or T3 line. WAN 28 is in turn is connected to a wireless gateway32, via connection 36. Connection 36 serves as a bridge between WAN 28and one or more other networks, such as an RF wireless network, cellularnetwork, satellite network, or other synchronous or asynchronousland-line connection.

Wireless gateway 32 communicates via link 38 through one or morewireless networks 40 to any of a plurality of mobile devices 20.

System 10 includes the ability to redirect certain message attachmentsto an attachment processor 42 if redirection program 30 determines thatthe user's mobile device 20 cannot receive and process attachments to amessage 12. The attachment processor 42 may for example be a FAXmachine, a printer, a system for displaying images (such as video) or amachine capable of processing and playing audio files, such as a voicemail system. Also, the user may have specified that certain attachmentsare not to be forwarded to user's mobile device 20, even if the mobiledevice 20 can process those attachments. By way of example, consider anE-mail sent to a user that includes three attachments—a word processingdocument, a video clip and an audio clip. Redirection program 30 couldbe configured to send the text of the E-mail to user's mobile device 20,to send the word processing document to a networked printer located nearthe user, to send the video clip to a store accessible through a secureconnection through the Internet, and to send the audio clip to theuser's voice mail system. This example is not intended to limit thebreadth and scope of the invention, but rather to illustrate the varietyof possibilities embodied in the redirection concept.

The mobile device 20 is preferably a hand-held two-way wireless pagingcomputer, a wirelessly enabled palm-top computer, a mobile telephonewith data messaging capabilities, or a wirelessly enabled laptopcomputer, but could, alternatively be other types of mobile datacommunication devices capable of sending and receiving messages viawireless network(s) 40 and link 38. Although it is preferable for system10 to operate in a two-way communications mode, system 10 could bebeneficially used in a “one and one-half” or acknowledgment pagingenvironment, or even with a one-way paging system. The mobile device 20includes software program instructions that work in conjunction withredirection program 30 to enable the seamless, transparent redirectionof user-selected data items.

A user of system 10 can configure redirection program 30 to push certainuser-selected data items to the user's mobile device 20 when redirectionprogram 30 detects that a particular user-defined event trigger (ortrigger point) has taken place. This is made possible by wirelessgateway 32, which implements this routing and push functionality.User-selected data items may include: E-mail messages, calendar events,meeting notifications, address entries, journal entries, personalalerts, alarms, warnings, stock quotes, news bulletins, etc., but could,alternatively, include any other type of message that is transmitted touser's office computer 18, or that computer 18 acquires through the useof intelligent agents, such as data that is received after the computer18 initiates a search of a database or a website or a bulletin board. Insome instances, only a portion of the data item is transmitted to mobiledevice 20 in order to minimize the amount of data transmitted via link38. In these instances, mobile device 20 can optionally send a commandmessage to the host system to receive more or all of the data item ifthe user desires to receive it.

FIG. 1 shows internal message 12 being communicated over network 26 froma desktop computer (22, 24) to the user's office computer 18. Also shownin FIG. 1 is external message 14, which could be an E-mail message froman Internet user, or could be a command message from the user's mobiledevice 20. Once message 12 or 14 reaches the primary message store ofuser's office computer 18, it can be detected and acted upon byredirection program 30. Redirection program 30 can use many methods ofdetecting new messages. A preferred method of detecting new messages isusing the Microsoft® Messaging API (MAPI), in which programs, such asredirection program 30, register for notifications or ‘advise syncs’when changes to a mailbox take place. Other methods of detecting newmessages for forwarding to mobile devices such as 20 could also be used,since the administration aspects of the present invention are notdependent upon any particular message detection scheme.

In operation, when the message 12 is received at the user's officecomputer 18, redirection program 30 detects its presence and preparesmessage 12 for redirection to the user's mobile device 20. In preparingthe message for redirection, redirection program 30 could compressinternal message 12, could compress the message header, and could alsoor instead encrypt the entire message 12 or portions thereof to create asecure link to the user's mobile device 20.

Also programmed into the redirection program 30 is the address of theuser's mobile device 20, the type of device, and whether mobile device20 can accept certain types of attachments, such as word processing orvoice attachments. If the user's mobile device 20 cannot accept thesetypes of attachments, then redirector software 30 can be programmed toroute the attachments to an appropriate machine 42.

After the redirection program 30 has determined that a particularmessage such as 12 should be redirected, and it has prepared the messagefor redirection, the software 30 then sends internal message 12 to amessage store located in the user's mobile device 20, using whatevermeans are necessary. In a preferred embodiment the message 12 is sentback over network 26, WAN 28, and through link 38 to wireless device 20.Redirection program 30 preferably repackages internal message 12 as anE-mail with an outer envelope to create outgoing message 16. The outerenvelope contains the addressing information of the user's mobile device20, although alternative repackaging techniques and protocols could beused, such as a TCP/IP repackaging and delivery method. Wireless gateway32 requires this outer envelope information in order to know where tosend outgoing message 16. Wireless gateway 32 acts as a central routingpoint for all mobile devices 20 in one or more wireless networks. Italso implements a method to allow pushing of data items to such devicesand thus provides for “always on, always connected” type of operation ofthe user's mobile device 20. No dial-up or other user-initiatedconnection is required for retrieval of the data items. Those skilled inthe art will appreciate that most WANs, like the Internet for example,do not allow direct pushing of information to a network endpoint.

Once outgoing message 16 is received by the user's mobile device 20, theouter envelope is removed and the message 12 is placed in the memorystore within the user's mobile device 20. By repackaging and removingthe outer envelope in this manner, the present invention causes theuser's mobile device 20 to appear to be at the same physical location asthe user's office computer 18, thus creating a transparent system.

In the case where message 14 is representative of an external messagefrom a computer connected to WAN 18 to the user's office computer 18,and computer 18 has been configured to redirect messages 14, then in asimilar manner to message 12, message 14 would be repackaged with anouter envelope to create message 16. Message 16 would then betransmitted to user's mobile device 20. In the case where message 14 isrepresentative of a command message from user's mobile device 20 touser's office computer 18, the message 14 is not redirected, but isacted upon by user's office computer 18.

If message 16 is an E-mail message, the user at the user's mobile device20 sees the original subject, sender's address, destination address,carbon copy and blind carbon copy. When the user replies to message 16,(thus creating a message 14) the software operating at the user's mobiledevice 20 adds a similar outer envelope to the reply message to causethe reply message to be routed first to the user's office computer 18,which then removes the outer envelope and redirects the message to thefinal destination, such as back to desktop computer 22. In a preferredembodiment, this results in the outgoing redirected message from theuser's office computer 18 being sent using the E-mail address of thecomputer 18, rather than the address of the mobile device 20. Thus itwill appear to the recipient of the message that the message originatedfrom the user's office computer 18 and not mobile device 20. Any repliesto the redirected message will then be sent to the user's officecomputer 18, which if it is still in redirection mode, will repackagethe reply and send it to the user's mobile device 20, as describedabove.

In an alternative embodiment to the configuration of system 10 shown inFIG. 1, a server may be utilized to run redirection program 30. Thusrather than requiring each user to run redirection program 30 on theiroffice computer 18, a server could service multiple users. Such aconfiguration is particularly advantageous for use with message serverssuch as a Microsoft Exchange Server, which is normally operated so thatall user messages are kept in one central location or mailbox store onthe server instead of in a store within each user's office computer 18.This configuration has the additional advantage of allowing a singlesystem administrator to configure and keep track of all users havingmessages redirected. If the system includes encryption keys, these toocan be kept at one place for management and update purposes.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a first Enterprise serversystem is shown generally as 50. System 50 shows an implementation wherethe redirection program 30 is running on an Enterprise server 52 ratherthan on individual desktop computers. Messaging servers are shown inFIG. 2 as Microsoft Exchange servers. For the purpose of clarity, onlythree Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c are shown. The presence ofparticular desktop computers, workstations and other network serverswill be obvious to those skilled in the art, and has been indicatedgenerally by the dotted line 26 which represents network 26 of FIG. 1.Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the Exchange servers54 a, 54 b and 54 c, will also normally be connected through thefirewall 60 or other components to receive electronic messages from theWAN 28 or other network. Thus, although these connections have not beenshown to avoid congestion in the drawings, the Exchange servers 54 a, 54b and 54 c in FIG. 2, as well as those in FIG. 3 and the server shown inFIGS. 5 and 6, are preferably connected to enable typical messagingfunctions both within the network 26 and between workstations connectedin the network 26 and external messaging systems. As described above, anserver such as 52 operates in conjunction with the messaging serverssuch as the Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c (or server 204 in FIGS.5 and 6) to enable communication of messages and other data itemsbetween messaging servers and mobile devices.

It is assumed that E-mail is stored at Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and54 c in the network 26, or alternatively forwarded to Enterprise server52 when redirection is initiated.

Enterprise server 52 accesses Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c innetwork 26 from which redirection is to be enabled and implementsredirection program 30 (see FIG. 1). Network 26 is preferably acorporate network which extends throughout corporate premises or anentire corporate Enterprise. Enterprise server 52 accesses Exchangeservers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c via MAPI clients 56 a, 56 b and 56 crespectively in order to detect incoming E-mail messages which should beredirected from desktop systems in network 26 to associated mobiledevices 20. Enterprise server 52 also couples Exchange servers 54 a, 54b and 54 c through WAN 28 to wireless gateway 32.

Although Enterprise server 52 requires a connection through firewall 60to WAN 28, the integrity of the firewall 60 is not compromised.Enterprise server 52 initiates its connection to WAN 28 only in anoutbound direction. Unauthorized access to network 26 from outsidefirewall 60 through the Enterprise server connection is therebyprevented. When a connection to wireless gateway 32 through WAN 28 isestablished, Enterprise server 52 maintains the connection, therebyavoiding operations to re-establish the connection every time a messageor information is to be redirected to a mobile device 20. This openconnection between Enterprise server 52 and the wireless gateway 32,once established, provides for “always on, always connected”functionality of a wireless device 20.

Enterprise server 52 is also coupled to a data store 62 in which avariety of information, such as user information, configurationinformation, logging information and messages or portions thereof may beretained.

System 50 system operates as described above to continuously redirectmessages and possibly other data items from user accounts associatedwith Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b, 54 c in network 26 to correspondingmobile devices 20 a, 20 b and 20 c as required. Information associatedwith the desktop systems is thereby mirrored on the mobile devices 20 a,20 b and 20 c.

Enterprise server 52 implements MAPI clients 56 a, 56 b, and 56 c tointerface with each Exchange server 54 a, 54 b and 54 c. Althoughmultiple Exchange servers are shown in FIG. 2, relatively small networkswith few users may have only a single Exchange server, such that asingle MAPI client would be implemented in Enterprise server 52. In theevent that further Exchange servers are added to an existing network 26after installation of Enterprise server 52, a corresponding number ofnew MAPI clients would be added to Enterprise server 52 to enableredirection of messages from such additional Exchange servers, providedthat the capacity of Enterprise server 52 is not exceeded.

MAPI clients 56 a, 56 b and 56 c are configured to receive notificationsof changes to any mailboxes on the Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b or 54 cwhich are “wirelessly enabled” or configured for redirection of incomingmessages to a mobile device 20 a, 20 b or 20 c. Enterprise server 52maintains a list of users whose mailboxes are wirelessly enabled andthereby determines for which mailboxes the MAPI clients should receivenotifications. In preferred embodiments of the invention, MAPI clients56 a, 56 b and 56 c are designed to implement a desired notificationscheme in order to provide for a more simple installation of Enterpriseserver 52 with an existing network 26. Redirection functionality canthereby be provided while requiring minimal changes to the Exchangeservers on the existing network 26.

Enterprise server 52 will normally be configured to respond to onlyparticular selected mailbox changes among the many possible changes thatmay occur within a user's mailbox. Even though Exchange servers 54 a, 54b and 54 c may provide notifications of all changes to all mailboxes,only certain changes to wirelessly enable mailboxes will require anyaction by Enterprise server 52. For example, although the Exchangeservers may provide notifications to MAPI clients 54 a, 54 b and 54 cwhen messages are moved from one folder to another within a user'smailbox or deleted from a folder or folders in a user's mailbox, noredirection operations may be required by Enterprise server 52. When anew message arrives at a wirelessly-enabled mailbox however, Enterpriseserver 52 must respond to the associated notification from an Exchangeserver by executing operations to redirect the new message to the user'smobile device 20, provided that redirection has been enabled. Anydeterminations of the type of mailbox change notification and whether ornot any redirection functions are necessary are preferably made withinEnterprise server 52. As described above, such an arrangement wouldminimize network changes required to incorporate a redirection systemaccording to the invention into an existing network 26.

Although Enterprise server 52 is shown outside network 26, in someimplementations Enterprise server 52 will be running as a service withinnetwork 26, as a Windows NT® service for example. As such, those skilledin the art will appreciate that administration functions for Enterpriseserver 52 may be integrated with other network service administrativearrangements. Since Enterprise server 52 operates in conjunction withExchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c, Enterprise server administrationcould be integrated with Exchange server administration, as an Exchangeextension for example. When an existing user's mailbox is to be enabledfor redirection of messages to a wireless device 20, an Exchangeadministrator may add the user to Enterprise server 52 through a mailboxextension. For a new user, the Exchange administrator may add the user'smailbox on an Exchange server and also add the user to Enterprise server52 during a single login session.

Although such integrated administration may be convenient under somecircumstances, there are also some associated disadvantages. Forexample, simply enabling an existing user's mailbox for wirelessredirection of messages by adding the user to Enterprise server 52requires intervention by either an Exchange administrator or anEnterprise server administrator with Exchange administration permissionor privileges. Therefore, Exchange administrators must be familiar withboth Exchange servers and Enterprise server 52, or Enterprise serveradministrators must have full Exchange administration permissions. Foran Exchange administrator, the increased workload and knowledge requiredto administer the additional Enterprise server 52 would likely beperceived as a negative impact of installing a network redirectionsolution. On the other hand, in the interest of maintaining networkcontrol and integrity, network administrators normally strive tominimize the number of network accounts having administrationprivileges. Granting a full set of Exchange administrative permissionsto an Enterprise server administrator is thus contrary to such commonnetwork administration principles.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the system of FIG. 2 incorporating a useradministration system and is shown generally as 80. Administration ofEnterprise server 52 may be accomplished through an administrationservice and client arrangement shown in system 80. In system 80,Enterprise user administration service 82, is installed and executed ona computer which can communicate with Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54c, and has Exchange administration rights. Service 82 may instead run onone or more of Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c. As will beapparent, administration rights are normally associated with networkaccounts instead of particular computers. Provided that a computer userlogs on using an account having Exchange administration rights or acomputer is configured to run under a specific account having Exchangeadministration rights, service 82 may be executed on that computer.

Enterprise user administration service 82 preferably runs in thebackground on the computer on which it is installed. An Enterpriseserver administration client 84 is similarly installed on a computer innetwork 26 and communicates with service 82 to perform Enterprise serveradministration functions, as discussed below.

Although Enterprise user administration service 82 must be running on acomputer having Exchange server administration permissions, client 84may be installed on any computer within network 26 which can communicatewith the computer on which service 82 is running. Enterprise serveradministration features are thereby provided through client 84 withoutrequiring Exchange administration privileges or permissions.Administration functions for Enterprise server 52 remain integrated withExchange server administration, in that the service 82 performsEnterprise server administration through Exchange administrationarrangements as described above. However, client 84 requires no Exchangeadministration permissions; only the service 82 requires suchadministration rights.

Thus system 80 thereby provides for flexibility in assignment ofExchange administration rights to Enterprise server administrators.

Enterprise user administration service 82 is preferably configured toprovide for common Enterprise server administration functions, includingbut in no way limited to: adding users to an Enterprise server 52,deleting users from an Enterprise server 52, listing all users on anEnterprise server 52, and verifying that a particular user exists on aparticular Enterprise server 52. As such, only a restricted set ofExchange administration rights is available to Enterprise serveradministrators through administration client 84. Even though service 82may have full Exchange administration rights, it is tailored to provideonly specific Enterprise server administration functions to client 84.Therefore, Enterprise administration for existing Exchange users throughEnterprise user administration client 84 requires no intervention byExchange administrators.

FIG. 4 is a logical flowchart of the functions of the useradministration system of FIG. 3. Administration processing at client 84starts at a step 90 when an administration function is entered orselected. The administration request is then sent to service 82, whichperforms the actual administration function or functions specified inthe administration request from the client 84. In preferred embodiments,client 84 is adapted to provide for only a limited set of specificEnterprise server administration functions, preferably including themost frequently executed administration functions. Client 84 may alsopossibly provide for other administration functions for which themessaging system owner or operator wishes to avoid Exchangeadministrator intervention. By providing for more Enterprise serveradministration functions through client 84 and service 82, network andExchange administrator involvement in Enterprise server administrationmay be minimized. However, such broader administration functionalitythrough client 84 and service 82 would effectively provide access to ahigher level of Exchange administration rights through client 84.Therefore, network and/or Exchange administrators must trade off ease ofEnterprise server administration against assignment of Exchangeadministration rights.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, client 84 provides the useradministration functions of: adding 92, deleting 94, listing 96,verifying 98 and other requests 100.

When service 82 determines that an add user request has been sent byclient 84, a user information record must be created, either on anExchange server 54 a, 54 b or 54 c or in the data store 62 associatedwith Enterprise server 52. User information, such as a user name, amailbox name and a wireless device, is requested by service 82 wherenecessary at step 102 or may be initially supplied by client 84 with theadd user request and is stored in a user information record in datastore 62 at step 104. At step 106 a test is made to determine if the adduser request relates to a single user. If the request is for a singleuser, control returns to step 90 and the service 82 and client 84 revertto a background or waiting state until a further administration requestis made at client 84.

The administration system of FIG. 4 also supports multiple-useradministration with a single client request. An administration requestfrom client 84 may specify a list of users or an identifier for a filecontaining a list of users for which the same administration function isto be performed. In the example of adding a user, if at step 106 it isdetermined that the request is not restricted to a single user, it isthen determined a step 108 whether or not the previously executed adduser function was associated with the last user in the multiple-userlist. If so, then the multiple-user request has been completed andcontrol is returned to step 90. If the request has not yet beencompleted for all users in a list or file however, processing continuesat step 110 to select a next user from the list or file, after whichcontrol returns to step 102.

A delete user administration function begins at step 94 and is executedin a similar manner to the add user function, except that an existinguser information record is deleted at step 112. Steps 114, 116 and 118provide multiple-user request functionality as described above withregard to the add user function.

A list users request begins at step 96. At step 120 existing userrecords are accessed and a list of Enterprise server users is returnedto client 84 at step 122. Although not shown in FIG. 4, a multipleEnterprise server list request may also be supported by the useradministration system. A multiple server list request would be processedsimilarly to a multiple user request, with the list user operationsbeing repeated for all Enterprise servers specified in the request.However, such a list request would only be appropriate in a messagingsystem with more than one Enterprise server, since the list requestgenerates a list of all of the users of an Enterprise server.

A verify user request begins at step 98. At step 124 user informationrecords are accessed. Service 82 checks all user information stored byEnterprise server 52 and returns a result to client 84 at step 126.Since an administrator may need to verify that a number of users existon Enterprise server 52, a multiple-user verify request is supported andprocessed as described above and is represented at steps 128, 130 and132.

The add user, delete user, list users and verify user administrationfunctions are common Enterprise server administration functions thatcould be performed through a client 84 and service 82. These functionsare for illustrative purposes only, it is not the intent of theinventors to limit the invention to these functions only. OtherEnterprise server user administration functions, indicated generally atsteps 100 and 134 could also be performed through a client-servicearrangement.

As described above, this administration arrangement assumes that theuser has an existing Exchange mailbox. Therefore, new users must firstbe added to an Exchange server 54 a, 54 b or 54 c by an Exchangeadministrator before the Enterprise user administration client 84 can beused to add the user to Enterprise server 52. Adding the user to anExchange server would be required for all new Exchange users, regardlessof whether or not an Enterprise server 52 is provided in network 26, andthus does not represent any new work for an Exchange administrator.

Enterprise user administration client 84 can be installed and run on anycomputer in network 26 that can communicate with a computer that isrunning service 82. As described above, service 82 may only be executedby a user with Exchange administration rights or on a computer runningunder an account with Exchange administration rights. Client 84 requiresno such administration rights and thus can be either made accessible toany users or restricted to any particular users or Enterprise serveradministrators, in accordance with the preferences of the systemadministrators. Restricted client arrangements embody a higher degree ofcontrol over Enterprise server administration, whereas unrestricted orall-user access to client 84 or at least specific client functionsprovides for remote administration of an Enterprise server. For example,client 84 might be included as part of a software package which isinstalled at a desktop computer in a network from which messages are tobe redirected. Every user could then run client 84 to perform some orall of the supported Enterprise server administration functions.Alternatively, client 84 may be configured to execute an add user orother administration procedure automatically, for example the first timea user connects a mobile device 20 to the user's desktop system 18.

Client 84 may be implemented as a command line utility, in whichadministration functions supported by client 84 are invoked by enteringa properly formatted text command according to a predetermined syntax.For multiple-user administration functions, a list of users could beeither supplied as part of the command, or a file containing such a listcould be specified in the command. Alternatively, the administrationcommands could instead be built into a custom web-based interface, agraphical user interface (GUI) or automated scripts. A web-based,network-based or other shared interface offers the additional advantagethat client component 84 could be installed on only a single computer ora relatively small number of computers and invoked by any user from anycomputer within the network.

Although the description above refers to adding users to Enterpriseserver 52, user information may actually be stored on an Exchange server54 a, 54 b or 54 c. In such systems, the user information is preferablystored in Exchange folders accessible by Enterprise server 52.Enterprise server 52 may instead store user information in data store62. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, regardless of whereuser information is stored, on an Exchange server or in data store 62associated with Enterprise server 52, when a user is added, userinformation is written to the appropriate storage location. Deleting auser from Enterprise server 52 causes corresponding user information tobe either erased or overwritten.

In order to execute the list users function or the verify user function,Enterprise server 52 accesses the user information, wherever it isstored.

The function of adding a user to Enterprise server 52 effectivelyenables the user's mailbox on an Exchange server for message redirectionto the user's mobile device 20. Similarly, by deleting a user fromEnterprise server 52, message redirection to a mobile device 20 isdisabled. Each mobile device 20 has a unique identification number,generally called a personal identification number or PIN, associatedtherewith. Adding a user to Enterprise server 52 creates acorrespondence between the user's mailbox on an Exchange server and theparticular wireless device 20 to which messages addressed to the userare to be redirected. The user information which is stored in either anExchange server or a data store 62 when the user is added to Enterpriseserver 52 includes the particular PIN for the user's mobile device 20.The user information also preferably includes the user name, mailboxname, E-mail address or other information which identifies the user ormailbox from which redirection is enabled.

In addition to user identification and PIN information stored to userrecords when a user is added to Enterprise server 52, an indication ofthe redirection status of the user's office computer 18 is also storedwith the Enterprise server user information. The status indicator wouldstore at least the latest redirection status, such as “running” toindicate that incoming messages are currently being redirected to theuser's mobile device 20, or “disabled” to indicate that messageredirection is not currently active. Other or further status informationmay also be stored with the user information, including for example thename of Enterprise server 52 through which messages for the user are tobe redirected, statistical information relating to the number ofmessages sent to or from the wireless device, the number of messagespending to the wireless device, the number of messages that have expiredbefore being sent to the wireless device, the number of messages notsent to the wireless device in accordance with filtering rules, thetimes that messages were last sent to or received from the wirelessdevice, the time of last contact with the wireless device, the result ofthe most recent transaction involving the wireless device, and the like.

Referring back to FIG. 2, in traditional messaging schemes such as thosebased on MAPI, a messaging session is conducted between a messagingclient and a messaging server over some communication means, which asshown in FIG. 2 may involve a network connection between a MAPI client56 a, 56 b, or 56 c, and an Exchange server 54 a, 54 b or 54 c.

A first problem with traditional messaging occurs when communicationwith a server is interrupted: the session hangs up and the client blocksuntil the service is stopped and started again. This blocking problemaffects any system that uses traditional messaging clients such as MAPIclients to access messaging servers such as Exchange servers. In system50 of FIG. 2, Enterprise server 52 can also block, in a similar way thata traditional messaging client can. However, the blocking problem iscompounded in systems such as 50 because several messaging sessions canbe operating on Enterprise server 52 when multiple MAPI clients 56 a, 56b and 56 c are implemented. A fault in any one messaging session cancause Enterprise server 52 to hang up, thereby blocking communicationsbetween the wireless gateway 32 and all Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and54 c, not only the server with the faulty messaging session.

A second problem is encountered in large deployments, such as whenseveral Exchange servers exist in various locations, often as a resultof the progressive growth of an organization. As new Exchange serversand corresponding MAPI clients are added, their number can quicklyexceed the capacity of a single Enterprise server 52. One possiblesolution is to add another Enterprise server in the same corporatenetwork. However, a further Enterprise server would introduce anotherconnection through the corporate firewall 60 over WAN 28. Also, when auser changes location and is moved from one Enterprise server toanother, new routing information must be obtained. Centraladministration of such distributed systems presents a further challenge.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a block diagram of a second Enterprise serversystem is shown generally as 150. System 150 illustrates an alternativeEnterprise server architecture which overcomes the above potentialproblems. In system 150, functions of a distributed Enterprise server152 are distributed among distinct server components, each of which maybe running on a dedicated computer. Distributed Enterprise server 152comprises multiple Enterprise server agents 154 a, 154 b and 154 c,connected to a router 156; the agents and router are also connected toEnterprise server administration 158.

Each agent (154 a, 154 b, 154 c) monitors mailboxes on a specificExchange server (54 a, 54 b, 54 c) and, when required, sends newmessages to the user's wireless device 20 (not shown) via router 156 andwireless gateway 32. Agents 154 a, 154 b and 154 c also manage incomingmessages that are initiated by wireless devices 20. As in system 50(FIG. 2) there is a one-to-one relation between the number of MAPIclients and the number of Exchange servers, although each MAPI client160 a, 160 b and 160 c in the distributed Enterprise server 152 isimplemented in a separate agent 154 a, 154 b and 154 c, preferably on adifferent computer than all other MAPI clients and agents. Each agent154 a, 154 b and 154 c comprises a MAPI client and a router interface162 a, 162 b and 162 c respectively. Although there may be many agentsin distributed Enterprise server 152, each agent is designed to monitormailboxes on a single Exchange server. The one to one relationshipbetween Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b, 54 c and agents 154 a, 154 b and154 c provides for both fault tolerance and scalability.

If a MAPI session between an Exchange server, 54 a for example, and itscorresponding agent 154 a fails and causes the agent 154 a to block,other Exchange servers 54 b and 54 c, and agents 154 a and 154 b cancontinue to operate without failure. This provides fault tolerance withrespect to messaging session failure, which overcomes the above blockingproblem discussed above with regard to the configuration of server 52 ofFIG. 3.

System 150 also facilitates expansion of Enterprise server capacity.When a new Exchange server is added, a corresponding agent is added toEnterprise server 152 to handle the new Exchange server. Thus only oneEnterprise server system component instead of an entire Enterpriseserver is required to accommodate new Exchange servers. In system 50 ofFIG. 3, a new Enterprise server 52 would tend to be under utilized atfirst, and as further Exchange servers are added, the Enterprise serverwould saturate to capacity. With the distributed Enterprise serversystem architecture of system 150, the messaging server load is alwaysdistributed between the agents 154 a, 154 b and 154 c.Intercommunication between the agents 154 a, 154 b and 154 c alsoprovides for load balancing among the agents. Messaging server load canthus be distributed equally among all operable agents.

Each agent 154 a, 154 b and 154 c may possibly run on a dedicatedcomputer, but is preferably implemented on the same computer that isoperating the corresponding Exchange server 54 a, 54 b or 54 c.

A router protocol is used in communications between agents 154 a, 154 band 154 c, which may for example act as router clients 162 a, 162 b, and162 c. The router clients are connected to a router protocol server 164of router 156. In a preferred embodiment, the router protocol is aproprietary BlackBerry Enterprise Server (“BES”) Router Protocol(“BRP”). BRP is a TCP/IP-based communication protocol and is thepoint-to-point protocol used as part of the process of passing databetween an agent 154 a, 154 b or 154 c and a user's mobile device 20 viarouter 156 and wireless gateway 32.

Router 156 further comprises a wireless gateway interface 166. Similarto router protocol server 164, gateway interface 168 may also beembodied as a gateway protocol (GP) client. The gateway protocol governscommunications between the Enterprise server 152 and wireless gateway 32via WAN 28 and is preferably a TCP/IP-based protocol. One example ofsuch a protocol is described in International (PCT) Patent ApplicationS/N PCT/CA01/01814, entitled “Wireless Router System and Method” andfiled on Dec. 21, 2001.

In system 150, router 156 acts as a client in order to communicate withwireless gateway 32. Router 156, as a router server, is responsible forcommunicating with all router clients in the Enterprise system 150, andin particular with the agents 154 a, 154 b, 156 c and their routerclients 162 a, 162 b and 162 c. Router 156 multiplexes many routerprotocol sessions from several agents into a single session using thegateway protocol, such as the above proprietary SRP. Router 156 alsotransfers messages from the agents 154 a, 154 b and 154 c to wirelessgateway 32 via the single gateway protocol client connection to wirelessgateway 32.

Router 156 maintains a list of in-process transactions and their currentstate in storage, thereby providing transaction persistence. Once amessage is successfully sent to router 156 and saved to message store168, it need not be resent by agent 154 a, 154 b or 154 c.

When router 156 receives a message from a user's mobile device 20,through wireless gateway 32, a device/agent lookup table 170 is accessedto determine which particular agent is handling the user's Exchangeserver messaging account.

Messages destined for mobile devices 20 do not require any lookup andare passed on to the wireless gateway 32. Preferably, mobile device andagent information is extracted from outgoing messages and compared tothe information in table 170 to ensure that the user informationdatabase 172 and the mobile device/agent lookup table 170 remainsynchronized.

Enterprise server administration 158 stores administration andconfiguration information in a user information database 172.

In order to administer all the routers 156 and agents, an administrationuser interface (“UI”) 174 is provided, which may be either dialog or webbased. The user administration of Enterprise server 152 is substantiallythe same as described above in relation to Enterprise server 52. Theadministration UI 174 acts as a client to Enterprise serveradministration 158, which requires Exchange server administrationrights. In the distributed Enterprise server 152 however, theadministration arrangement must be adapted to accommodate the variousserver components. For example, Enterprise server administration 158must provide for addition of new agents to work with agents 154 a, 154 band 154 c. In systems 50 and 80 (FIGS. 2 and 3), any new MAPI clientsare preferably integrated with Enterprise server 52. When a new agent isto be added in the distributed Enterprise server 152, however, variousinformation records must be updated or created and stored. For any newagent, an identification of the router 156 to which the agent is to beconnected and the machine or computer on which the agent will run, thename of the agent, the particular Exchange server that the agent shouldmonitor (which will normally be a new Exchange server) and the networkaccount under which the agent will run as a network service must bespecified by an Enterprise server administrator.

Enterprise server administration 158 will assign a router ID and anauthentication key to a new agent and generate an agent ID. The serverdomain name for the corresponding Exchange server will be retrieved byEnterprise server administration 158 through its interface with theparticular Exchange server. The new agent will then be installed on thecomputer specified by the administrator and appropriate registrysettings will be created. The final step in adding a new agent involvesupdating configuration information used by router 156. It will beapparent to those skilled in the art that a more conventional scheme ofadministering Enterprise server 152 through the network and/or Exchangeadministration arrangements, although less practical, is also possible.

In system 150, a central system administration scheme is preferred.Since each agent (154 a, 154 b, 154 c) and router 156 have address, userand configuration information associated therewith, and furthermorerequire access to such information for other system components, a singlestore for all administration information is particularly desirable. Userinformation database 172 is the primary store for all administration andconfiguration information, including user administration information asdescribed above, agent information, router information and wirelessgateway information. User information database 172 is normallyaccessible to all Enterprise server components through the Enterpriseserver administration 158 and appropriate client interfaces. Althoughonly one such administration client interface 176 is shown in FIG. 5,all components requiring access to user information database 172 mustcommunicate with Enterprise server administration 158. As will beapparent, the administration interfaces may also be implemented asclients to one or more services of Enterprise server administration 158.

This central user information storage arrangement is in contrast withsystems 50 and 80, in which administration information is preferablystored on the Exchange servers. In order to provide some measure ofbackup however, additional data stores may be provided for each agent154 a, 154 b and 154 c and/or router 156. One such separate store forrouter 156 is device/agent lookup table 170. If for any reason router156 cannot access the user information database 172 through serveradministration 158, then it will access lookup table 170 to determine towhich agent a message received from a mobile device 20 should beforwarded. Similarly, in time periods during which user informationdatabase 172 is inaccessible, router 156 could extract device and agentinformation from outgoing redirected messages and update lookup table170 accordingly in order to ensure that lookup table 170 is as accurateas possible.

Although the architecture of systems 80 and 150 are different, overalloperation of system 150 is substantially the same as described above forsystem 80. When a user has been properly added to the Enterprise server152, message notifications from the Exchange servers are processed todetermine whether or not a message is to be redirected. Any appropriatemessage filter rules are applied and when the message is to beredirected to a wireless device, the message is sent by thecorresponding agent to router 156 for storage in message store 168 andtransmission to the appropriate wireless device 20 through the wirelessgateway 32.

Thus, the alternative architecture of FIG. 5 offers several advantagesover the architecture of FIG. 3. First, the ability to have bothExchange server and agent on a single computer decreases the likelihoodthat traditional messaging failures will occur, as intra-computercommunication instead of network communication can be used for messagingsessions. Distribution of various Enterprise server functions alsoallows several messaging sessions to be multiplexed efficiently into asingle wireless gateway protocol session. A significant result of thismultiplexing is that if a traditional messaging session hangs at aparticular agent, the gateway session at the router can continue for allother agents, such that the multiplexed session has effectively beenmade tolerant to faults in traditional messaging. Even though theoptimal agent, at a single computer, is unlikely to fail, themultiplexing is an additional safeguard for traditional messagingservers, which are not hosted on the agent computer.

The distributed architecture of system 150 further addresses the problemof scalability inherent in system 80. The addition of an Exchange serverto system 150 requires deployment of only a single component ofEnterprise server 152, namely an agent. Ideally, the new agent isintegrated with the Exchange server on the same computer.

The redirection systems described above are adapted to operate inconjunction with messaging systems using Microsoft Exchange. However,redirection systems in accordance with the invention are not limited tosuch messaging systems. A further embodiment of the invention, asdescribed below, provides a network server level redirection arrangementgenerally similar to those described above, but adapted for operationwith Lotus® Domino™ servers.

Referring now to FIG. 6 a block diagram of a third Enterprise serversystem is shown generally as 200. As will be apparent, the overallstructure of system 200 is very similar to system 50 (FIG. 2), thedifferences being that Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c have beenreplaced by a single domino server 204 and that MAPI clients 56 a, 56 band 56 c have been replaced by a single RPC client 206.

In system 200, network messaging functions in network 26 are providedusing a Lotus Domino server 204. A client, such as Lotus Notes forexample, enables users (not shown) in network 26 to access their E-mailmessages, calendar records, tasks and the like from Domino server 204.Such user clients typically interface with Domino server 204 through aDomino Remote Procedure Call (“RPC”) scheme. Unlike Exchange servers 54a, 54 b, and 54 c Domino server 204 supports not only messaging orprimarily E-mail clients but also other types of clients, includingbrowser clients for example, through RPC.

In an RPC scheme, an RPC client sends a procedure call to an RPCservice. The RPC service then executes the procedure and if necessaryreturns a result to the RPC client. In system 200, an RPC client 206 onEnterprise server 52 sends procedure calls to Domino server 204, whichthen performs the called procedures. One such procedure call would bethe polling signal, in response to which Domino server 204 returnsinformation relating to polled user mailboxes, as discussed in furtherdetail below.

As shown in FIG. 6, Enterprise server 202 includes an RPC client 206 asan interface between Enterprise server 202 and Domino server 204.Through RPC client 206, Enterprise server 202 accesses informationstored on Domino server 204, thereby enabling redirection of selectedinformation, such as a user's E-mail messages, from Domino server 204 tothe user's wireless device 20. It will be apparent to those skilled inthe art that network 26 may include multiple Domino servers (not shown)in addition to Domino server 204. In such systems, either multipleEnterprise servers are installed to share message redirection load, ormultiple RPC clients are implemented in a single Enterprise server 202.Each Enterprise server in a multiple Enterprise server installationwould preferably be configured to manage messaging traffic for adistinct group of users, normally all users on a single associatedDomino server. However, the implementation of multiple RPC clients ineach of the Enterprise servers, allowing any Enterprise server tocommunicate with any Domino server in the network, would provide formore balanced and dynamic load sharing. The operation of system 200 willbe described below for a single Domino server 204. Operation of amultiple Domino server and multiple Enterprise server system will beapparent therefrom.

Unlike the Exchange server redirection systems described above,Enterprise server 202 does not rely on mailbox change notifications fromDomino server 204. Instead, Enterprise server 202 preferably pollsDomino server 204 for new E-mail messages or other data items forredirection. A polling interval or amount of time between consecutivepolls of Domino server 204 by Enterprise server 202 is preferablyconfigured when a user is added to Enterprise server 202, whicheffectively enables the user for wireless redirection of information.Although the polling interval is configurable to suit the particularnetwork 26 in which Domino server 204 is operating, experimentation hasshown a reasonable polling interval to be twenty seconds. Setting ashorter polling interval potentially provides for a shorter latency timebetween the arrival of a new message at Domino server 204 and itsdetection by Enterprise server 202, which thereby provides for shorterdelay between the arrival of the message and its redirection to a mobiledevice 20. However, a shorter polling interval requires more frequentpolling and response signaling between Domino server 204 and Enterpriseserver 202 and increases the time and processing resources that Dominoserver 204 must dedicate to polling related functions. Those skilled inthe art will appreciate that higher network traffic may cause furthersignaling problems on network 26. Also, since a Domino server maysupport many additional messaging and non-messaging functions, theincreased time and resource allocations for short-interval polling maybe further undesirable. A longer polling interval reduces the amount ofsignaling and related Domino server processing, but may increase thedelay between message arrival at Domino server 204 and redirection ofthe message by Enterprise server 202 to a mobile device 20. Selection ofa polling interval thereby involves a trade-off between signaling andprocessing constraints and responsiveness or latency between messagearrival and redirection.

Different polling intervals may be set for specific users or a singlepolling interval may be set for all users on an Enterprise server 202. Acombined polling interval scheme may also be used, in which particularusers or a groups of users, network administrators for example, areconfigured for shorter polling intervals, whereas a longer pollinginterval is set for other users. Such a multiple-interval schemeprovides flexibility within a single installation, effectively allowingdifferent redirection service levels. Users requiring substantiallyreal-time message redirection could be assigned a shorter pollinginterval instead of a normal or default polling interval.

Enterprise server 202 is preferably integrated with Domino server 204and in such a system would therefore be operating within network 26.Domino server 204 is normally implemented as a network function orservice, running as a network service in Windows NT for example. As willbe apparent to those skilled in the art however, Domino servers such asserver 204 may instead be implemented on other platforms. Regardless ofthe network platform upon which Domino server 204 is running, theinterfaces between desktop computers (not shown) in network 26 andEnterprise server 202 with Domino server 204 may be implemented withsubstantially the same RPC clients. As such, redirection systemcomponents at both desktop computers and Enterprise server 202 areplatform independent.

Enterprise server 202, through its RPC client 206, polls Domino server204 to check for new messages in all mailboxes which have been enabledfor wireless message redirection. The timing of such polling isdetermined by the polling interval as discussed above. A single pollingsignal may request Domino server mailbox information for all userscurrently existing on Enterprise server 202. Alternatively, a distinctpolling signal may be used to poll a mailbox for each user on Enterpriseserver 202, such that Enterprise server 202 sends a polling signal toDomino server 204 for each user in an Enterprise server user list.Enterprise server 202 and the polling signals it generates may insteadbe configurable to provide for polling of Domino server 204 for onlycertain groups of users for example.

In the interest of simplifying polling related processing at Dominoserver 204 and reducing network traffic by limiting the amount ofinformation in a response signal, a selective polling scheme in whichmailbox information is requested for only specific users, may also beused. In such a polling scheme, a user mailbox is polled or included ina polling signal only when redirection for the particular user iscurrently active. Since normal Enterprise server 202 operations requirethat Enterprise server 202 determine whether or not a message orinformation is to be redirected to a user's mobile device 20, theselective polling feature can be provided with little or no additionalprocessing by Enterprise server 202. Alternatively, where Enterpriseserver 202 is integrated with Domino server 204, a determination ofwhether or not redirection is currently active for a particular user, oranalogously for which users redirection is currently active, maypossibly be made by Domino server 204. In such systems, when Dominoserver 204 is polled by Enterprise server 202, Domino server 204includes in its response signal information for all mailboxes for whichredirection is currently active.

In network redirection systems for Lotus Domino messaging servers,Enterprise server 202 is preferably integrated with Domino server 204.It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this integrationmay possibly be accomplished by implementing Enterprise server 202 as atask running on Domino server 204. Administration functions forEnterprise server 202 in such systems may then be integrated with Dominoserver administrative arrangements. When a user's existing mailbox is tobe enabled for redirection, a Domino server administrator adds the userto Enterprise server 202 using an Enterprise server administrationutility installed on a computer from which Domino server administrationfunctions can be performed. For a new user, the Domino serveradministrator may add the user's mailbox on Domino server 204 and alsoadd the user to Enterprise server 202.

As described above with regard to system 50 (FIG. 2) integratedEnterprise server 202/Domino server 204 administration also has theassociated disadvantage that simply enabling an existing user's mailboxfor wireless redirection of messages by adding the user to Enterpriseserver 202 requires intervention by either a Domino server administratoror an Enterprise server administrator with Domino server administrationpermission or privileges. Domino server administrators must therefore befamiliar with both Domino server 204 and Enterprise server 202, orEnterprise server administrators must have full Domino serveradministration permissions. As such, either Domino serveradministrators' workloads are increased, or control of networkadministration functions must be relaxed. In many networks ororganizations, neither of these options would be a desirablealternative.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a block diagram of the system of FIG. 6incorporating a user administration system is shown generally as 220.System 220 is similar to system 80 of FIG. 3 and operates in the samemanner. As with system 80, Enterprise user administration service 222 ispreferably installed and executed in the background on Domino server 204or on a computer which can communicate with the Domino server 204 andhas Domino server administration rights. Enterprise user administrationclient 224 is similarly installed on a computer in network 26 andcommunicates with the service 222 to perform Enterprise serveradministration functions.

Enterprise server user administration through client 224 and service 222proceeds substantially as described above for client 84 and service 82of system 80 (FIG. 3), except that client 224 and service 222 arepreferably implemented using RPC. Where more than one Domino server 204is installed in the network, service 222 preferably communicates withand is able to administer all of the Domino servers.

Service 222 runs on a computer or under a network account having Dominoserver administration permissions, whereas client 224 may be installedon virtually any computer that can communicate with the computer onwhich service 222 is running. Administration functions are thus providedthrough client 224, which does not require Domino server administrationprivileges or permissions, even though the administration functions forEnterprise server 202 remain integrated with service 222. Service 222performs the Enterprise server administration tasks requested by client224 through Domino server administration arrangements.

As in system 80, system 220 provides for flexibility in assignment ofDomino server administration rights to Enterprise server administrators.Service 222, like service 82, is preferably configured to provide forcommon Enterprise server administration functions such as adding usersto an Enterprise server, deleting users from an Enterprise server,listing all users on an Enterprise server, and verifying that aparticular user exists on a particular Enterprise server. Even thoughservice 222 may have full Domino server administration rights, it may beconfigured to provide only specific Enterprise server administrationfunctions to client 224. Service 222 may be provide any selectedEnterprise server administration tasks through client 224 to avoid thenecessity for intervention by Domino server administrators.

The Enterprise server administration functions described above withregard to FIG. 4 are also provided in the client-service arrangement ina Domino server messaging system and are accomplished substantially asdescribed with regard to FIG. 4. The following description of Enterpriseserver user add, delete, list and verify functions in a Domino serversystem is therefore relatively brief and relates primarily todifferences in Enterprise server user administration functions in Dominoserver systems as compared to Exchange server systems.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the overall processing involved in Enterpriseserver user administration for Domino server systems is as shown in FIG.4. An existing Domino server mailbox is enabled for redirection to awireless device 20 through an add user administration request by client224 at step 92. Before a new user may be added on Enterprise server 202,a mailbox for the new user must first be added to Domino server 204. Inresponse to the add user request from client 224, service 222 creates auser information record at step 104 either on Domino server 204 or indata store 62 associated with Enterprise server 202, including userinformation such as a user name, a mailbox name and a wireless deviceidentifier. Multiple-user administration with a single client request isalso supported in Domino server systems.

A delete user administration function at step 94 proceeds substantiallyas described above, to delete or overwrite a user information record atstep 112 to thereby effectively disable one or more Domino servermailboxes with respect to wireless redirection.

Enterprise server list users function at step 96 and verify users atstep 98 are also performed by the Domino server system client 224 andservice 222 as described above, except that the user records that areaccessed are stored on either Domino server 204 or Enterprise serverdata store 62.

The add user, delete user, list users and verify user administrationfunctions are common Enterprise server administration functions whichare likely be executed relatively frequently and therefore should beperformed through a client 224 and service 222. However, theseparticular functions are for illustrative purposes only; the inventionis not limited thereto. Further or different Enterprise server useradministration functions could be performed through a client-servicearrangement, as indicated generally at steps 100 and 134.

In another implementation, system 220 may be reconfigured to mirror thatof system 150 (FIG. 5) to overcome the same problems addressed by system150. In this case, Exchange servers 54 a, 54 b and 54 c would bereplaced by Domino servers and MAPI clients 160 a, 160 b and 160 c inEnterprise server agents 154 a, 154 b and 154 c would be replaced by RPCclients. Internal protocols, including for example the router protocol,administration protocol and gateway protocol, are preferablysubstantially the same for Enterprise servers operating in conjunctionwith Exchange servers and Domino servers. Overall operations of adistributed Enterprise server implemented with one or more Dominoservers is also substantially the same as described above for theExchange server-based system 150 and thus will be readily understood bythose skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains.

The versatility of Enterprise server systems in accordance with theinstant invention will be particularly apparent from the ability tosimply adapt an agent (154 a, 154 b, 154 c) of system 150 (see FIG. 5)to communicate with the particular messaging system in network 26. Agentoperations and all other agent interfaces are common for all messagingsystems. Inter-agent communication interfaces, agent to routerinterfaces (preferably BRP, as described above) and agent toadministration interfaces are preferably independent of the networkmessaging system. The user administration is also substantiallyindependent of the messaging system, except for its interface with themessaging servers and perhaps administration command and informationformats. At Router 156, communications with the agents preferably useBRP, communications with the user administration is preferably messagingsystem independent except with respect to information formats forexample, and the gateway protocol will also be independent of thenetwork messaging system. It will therefore be apparent that the basicEnterprise server system including agents, a user administration and arouter can therefore be adapted to provide data item or messageredirection for networks using messaging systems other than MicrosoftExchange and Lotus Domino.

Redirection functionality may be provided not only for messages in anetwork, but also for other data items, including but not limited totasks or task lists, calendar events such as appointments andappointment requests, address book or contact information and similardata items relating to common messaging system features. Particularly innetworks using Domino servers, many non-messaging data items could alsobe redirected. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, messaging isbut one feature supported by Domino servers. Any documents, databases,information downloaded by Domino server browser clients and the like mayalso be redirected to a user's wireless device 20.

In addition, the use of common internal Enterprise server systemprotocols facilitates migration of Enterprise server features for anyparticular network messaging system or platform to any other networkmessaging system or platform.

Although the invention has been described with reference to certainspecific embodiments, various modifications thereof will be apparent tothose skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as outlined in the claims appended hereto.

1. A system for configuring an enterprise server that directs electronicmessages between a messaging server and one or more wireless mobiledevices, the enterprise server being configurable via the messagingserver and its administration functions, comprising: an enterprise useradministration service program operating on a computing device incommunication with and having administration rights to the messagingserver; and a user administration client in communication with theenterprise user administration service program for configuring theenterprise server; wherein the enterprise user administration serviceprogram serves as an interface between the user administration clientand the messaging server, and enables the user administration client toperform one or more messaging server administration functions in orderto configure the enterprise server.
 2. The system of claim 1, whereinthe enterprise user administration service program provides the useradministration client access to a limited set of messaging serveradministration functions.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the useradministration client does not require administration rights to themessaging server independent of the administration rights of theenterprise user administration service program.
 4. The system of claim2, wherein the administration rights of the enterprise useradministration service program enable a full set of messaging serveradministration functions, and wherein the enterprise user administrationservice program restricts the user administration client to the limitedset of messaging server administration functions.
 5. The system of claim1, wherein the enterprise user administration service program executeson the messaging server.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein theenterprise user administration service program executes on a computerthat is coupled to the messaging server via a computer network.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the enterprise user administration serviceprogram provides the user administration client with one or moremessaging server administration functions selected from a groupconsisting of adding a user to the enterprise server, deleting a userfrom the enterprise server, generating a list of enterprise serverusers, and verifying an enterprise server user.
 8. The system of claim1, wherein the enterprise user administration service program enablesthe user administration client to perform messaging serveradministration functions to configure the messaging server.
 9. A systemfor administering an enterprise server configured to direct electronicmessages between a messaging server and a plurality of mobile devicesover a wireless communication network, wherein user administrationfunctions for the enterprise server are performed via the messagingserver using messaging server administration functions, comprising:means for configuring administration rights of the messaging server;means for receiving a user administration request for the enterpriseserver from a user administration client, the user administrationrequest specifying one or more messaging server administrationfunctions; and means for submitting the user administration request tothe messaging server to perform one or more user administrationfunctions to the enterprise server; wherein the user administrationclient does not have administration rights to the messaging server. 10.The system of claim 9, wherein the messaging server is provided alimited set of administration rights to the messaging server.
 11. Thesystem of claim 9, further comprising: means for receiving a second useradministration request for the messaging server from the useradministration client; and means for submitting the second useradministration request to the messaging server to perform one or moreuser administration to the messaging server.
 12. A computer-readablemedium encoded with software instructions for administering anenterprise server configured to direct electronic messages between amessaging server and a plurality of mobile devices over a wirelesscommunication network, wherein user administration functions for theenterprise server are performed via the messaging server using messagingserver administration functions, the computer-readable medium comprisingsoftware instructions to: configure administration rights of themessaging server; receive a user administration request for theenterprise server from a user administration client, the useradministration request specifying one or more messaging serveradministration functions; and submit the user administration request tothe messaging server to perform one or more user administrationfunctions to the enterprise server.
 13. The computer-readable medium ofclaim 12, further comprising software instructions to: receive a seconduser administration request for the messaging server from the useradministration client; and submit the second user administration requestto the messaging server to perform one or more user administration tothe messaging server.
 14. A system for configuring a first server incommunication with a second server and one or more mobile devices, thefirst server being configurable via the second server and itsadministration functions, comprising: an administration service programoperating on a computing device in communication with and havingadministration rights to the second server; and an administration clientin communication with the administration service program for configuringthe first server; wherein the administration service program serves asan interface between the administration client and the second server,and enables the administration client to perform one or more secondserver administration functions in order to configure the first server.15. The system of claim 14, wherein the administration service programprovides the administration client access to a limited set of secondserver administration functions.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein theadministration client does not require administration rights to thesecond server independent of the administration rights of theadministration service program.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein theadministration rights of the administration service program enable afull set of second server administration functions, and wherein theadministration service program restricts the administration client tothe limited set of second server administration functions.
 18. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the administration service program executeson the second server.
 19. The system of claim 14, wherein theadministration service program executes on a computer that is coupled tothe second server via a computer network.
 20. The system of claim 14,wherein the administration service program provides the administrationclient with one or more second server administration functions selectedfrom a group consisting of adding a user to the first server, deleting auser from the first server, generating a list of first server users, andverifying a first server user.
 21. The system of claim 1, wherein theadministration service program enables the administration client toperform second server administration functions to configure the secondserver.